On Thursday in Orange County Court, 34-year-old Javier Alexander Vilchez Salazar of New Windsor was sentenced to 21 years in state prison and ten years post-release supervision for raping two young women in September and November of 2017, after he had picked them up as fares when he was driving a cab near bars and nightclubs on the waterfront in the City of Newburgh.

“The community will be safer during the two decades that this defendant is incarcerated,” Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said. “The defendant’s predatory attacks on unsuspecting women who were merely trying to get home safely deserves a lengthy prison sentence. The bravery and tenacity of the survivors of these attacks in coming forward and cooperating with law enforcement is to be admired, and was indispensable to the successful prosecution of this case.”

At the time of his guilty plea, Salazar admitted on November 12, 2017, he was driving a cab by the waterfront in Newburgh when he picked up a young woman who was looking for a cab to take her home. Instead of driving her home, Salazar raped the woman.

Vilchez Salazar also acknowledged on September 3, 2017, he picked up a different young woman by the waterfront in Newburgh and also raped her, instead of driving her home.